This blog will present news items about the motion picture business, with emphasis on lower budget, independent film in most cases. Some reviews or commentaries on specific films, with emphasis on significance (artistic or political) or comparison, are presented. Note: No one pays me for these reviews; they are not "endorsements"!

About Me

Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!

Saturday, April 25, 2015

"Limited Partnership": love story about a male couple, over 40 years; with one an immigrant, marriage matters

“Limited Partnership”, directed by Thomas G. Miller
(actually a physician, according to the QA), tells the story of a male couple
which started a relationship in California in 1971 and has followed history for
forty years. This is a love story (as
much as the 1970 film called that).

The couple was Filipino-American Richard Adams, and
Australian Tony Sullivan. The couple
applied for a marriage license in Boulder, CO in 1975, and the court clerk and
local DA found nothing in the law denying them the right to one. Later the Colorado AG relented, and their
status became vulnerable. Tony needed to
be legally married to stay in the US. They would go to Mexico and re-enter often to
extend Tony’s temporary status. Eventually the couple lived in Europe and
became poor in the 1980s, before returning and gradually re-entering the gay
marriage battles in the 90s.

A key event was the US Justice Department's ruling in the late 70s that the federal government would not recognize them as married for immigration purposes, as expressed in notorious the letter referring to them as "faggots".

The film covers gay history since 1970, showing the anti-gay
attitudes expressed in Anita Bryant’s campaign in Florida in 1977, and the
Briggs Initiative which attempted to get gay teachers removed in California in
1978 (the film didn’t mention that the initiative did not pass -- I remember getting the news in a bar in
NYC in 1978). The film doesn’t
specifically mention DADT. Younger gay
adults may not grasp today how things were.

The film does mention the AIDS epidemic, but, as the couple
was monogamous, it was not exposed, as were many of their friends.

After 9/11, immigration became even testier, and Richard’s
health began to fail, as he developed stroke and heart problems and lung
cancer. Richard would pass away at age
65 at the end of 2012, a few months before the Supreme Court would overrule DOMA
(the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, which President Bill Clinton signed). Sullivan is still trying to get the DOJ to recognize his status as a widower. Richard's passing was too soon for them to do a legal ceremony in the state of Washington.

The film was shown at FilmfestDC at Landmark E Street,
before a nearly sold-out audience in a large auditorium. Miller and Sullivan were there for
questions. Sullivan mentioned that
libertarians were better on marriage equality than many Democrats, and attributed
many anti-gay attitudes of the distant past as indirectly related to propping
up heterosexual marriage itself.

My own take on this is to put the film inside a much bigger context. Had I met a "Tony" in 1973 (after my own "second coming"), could I have even created and maintained such a relationship, given the external adversity? That's its own kind of courage. Could I have supported someone financially because he could not get a green card? The moral scope of a question like that grows quickly. If might even affect political asylum (as from anti-gay countries) today.

The documentary will air on PBS Independent Lens in June,
and be distributed by Cinema Guild.

A good comparison for this film would be "Documented" (May 30, 2014 here).

This new film would almost certainly have played at the West End Cinema in Washington if it were still open.

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